Expiration Dates

http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/505/77-surprising-expiration-dates/

Here is a list of 75 surprising expiration dates, published by RealSimple magazine.

"There will come a time when there isn't any store"

We went to the cannery a few days ago, I feel extremely happy we did that.  Every day that goes by, I am feeling more urgent about food storage and other preparations.  I have been stopping by Goodwill at least every week, buying kids shoes for all different sizes, kids coats, snow boots, baby clothing for my grandchildren.  

  I can't keep from thinking about President Kimball's statement, 

"I remember when the sisters used to say, 'Well, but we could buy it at the store a lot cheaper than we can put it up.' But that isn't quite the answer, is it?....Because there will come a time when there isn't any store."  (April 1974 Welfare Session.)

So I have been making a list of things that we would really suffer without.  If there were no stores open, and maybe the electrical grid is down, we would already want to own our year's supply of food, but also a lot of other things such as shoes, coats, zero-degree sleeping bags, sewing machine needles, lantern mantles, bug spray.  

Try to get a different mindset, and think of things that you just can't live without, and buy a few while our stores are all open, because as President Kimball said, it won't always be that way.

If we have done all in our power, McConkie, April 1979

Ensign » 1979 » May

Stand Independent above All Other Creatures
Elder Bruce R. McConkie
Of the Council of the Twelve

http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=9b3a615b01a6b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD


Elder McConkie cites scriptural accounts of when righteous people were helped miraculously. I put my faith in these stories, believing that if I have stored my year's supply of food, the Lord will bless me.

We do not know when the calamities and troubles of the last days will fall upon any of us as individuals or upon bodies of the Saints. The Lord deliberately withholds from us the day and hour of his coming and of the tribulations which shall precede it—all as part of the testing and probationary experiences of mortality. He simply tells us to watch and be ready.

We can rest assured that if we have done all in our power to prepare for whatever lies ahead, he will then help us with whatever else we need.

He rained manna from heaven upon all Israel, six days each week for forty years, lest they perish for want of bread, but the manna ceased on the morrow after they ate of the parched corn of Canaan. Then they were required to supply their own food. (See Ex. 16:3–4, 35.)

During forty years in the wilderness the clothes worn by all Israel waxed not old and their shoes wore not out, but when they entered their promised land, then the Lord required them to provide their own wearing apparel. (See Deut. 29:5.)

When there was a famine in the land, at Elijah’s word, a certain barrel of meal did not waste, and a certain cruse of oil did not fail, until the Lord sent again rain on the earth. And it is worthy of note, as Jesus said, that though there were many widows in Israel, unto one only was Elijah sent. (See 1 Kgs. 17:10–16.)

We do not say that all of the Saints will be spared and saved from the coming day of desolation. But we do say there is no promise of safety and no promise of security except for those who love the Lord and who are seeking to do all that he commands.

It may be, for instance, that nothing except the power of faith and the authority of the priesthood can save individuals and congregations from the atomic holocausts that surely shall be.

And so we raise the warning voice and say: Take heed; prepare; watch and be ready. There is no security in any course except the course of obedience and conformity and righteousness.....

“Nevertheless, Zion shall escape if she observe to do all things whatsoever I have commanded her,” saith the Lord.

“But if she observe not to do whatsoever I have commanded her, I will visit her according to all her works, with sore affliction, with pestilence, with plague, with sword, with vengeance, with devouring fire.” (D&C 97:23, 25–26.)

Which kind of powdered milk should you order?

We are doing some food storage orders in our ward, one from Walton Feed, and a different group order together with the Durham  stake.  A woman from my ward asked me which powdered milk she should buy.  Here is my answer:




I looked at the milk you can order through Walton Feed, it has instant for $13.70 and noninstant for $11.60. Rainy Day brand.   Walton Feed will have no shipping charges tacked on.

I do not know if the Durham stake order will have shipping charges added.  Their milk is Maple Island brand, which is instant, and costs $10.

I will be doing the group order for Emergency Essentials every month.  With a group order you get free shipping on everything.  Their milk, "Provident pantry" is delicious, according to my friend who is living off her food storage right now.  She says her kids think it tastes totally normal. She only recommends the blue label ($15.95), not the yellow label "fortified" milk (12.95).

I just read this great post on FoodStorageMadeEasy.net  describing why we need to store powdered milk. And, since most of us hate to drink powdered milk, it was handy that the authors included the results of a powdered milk taste test, and gave the winners.

The best tasting instant powdered milk is:
Provident Pantry brand sold at Emergency Essentials.

and the best tasting Non-instant powdered milk is:
Rainy Day brand sold by Walton Feed.

So, you need to do your homework and decide if you need instant or non-instant. On FoodStorageMadeEasy.net they said:

"What is the difference between instant and non-instant powdered milk?
Instant powdered milk is similar to instant rice in that it is faster and easier to reconstitute than non-instant formulas. Typically instant powdered milk takes about twice as much powder per gallon as non-instant, but it depends on which brand you are purchasing."


Read their blog post and find out more.

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2010/04/26/lets-talk-about-powdered-milk/

So now you have all the information I know.  You'll have to decide for yourself.

Top 10 Reasons why I don't have my food storage- Wendy Dewitt

Top 10 Reasons Why I Don't Have My Food Storage

10. My neighbors have a TWO year supply! No, they don't. They don't have any food. Did you know that 85% of the members of the church don't have any food storage at all? If your idea of food storage is to eat someone else’s food………..this is a really bad plan.

9. I've paid tithing for 20 years...the church can give me a little food. Many members believe that when the times get hard, the church is going to come through like Joseph in Egypt. Absolutely not true. All the church storehouses and welfare farms across the country would only feed 4% of the members of the church. The church has been asking YOU to store food for 75 years. They're NOT storing food for you. Thus, another bad plan.

8. I'm moving in with my children / parents! Really....that’s just a bad plan all by itself. But it points out that most members don't have a year's supply because they're PLANNING on eating someone else's food! Of course, since no one HAS any food, we have yet another bad plan.

7. I have a gun...and the bullets to go with it! I've heard time and again, "How dumb is that to go to all the time and expense of getting food...just to have some guy with a gun come and shoot my family to take it away?" Here's a better question. Are you afraid of the guy with the gun? Or are you more afraid of BECOMING the guy with the gun? What would you do if your children were starving to death? Would you lie? Cheat? Steal? Would you shoot your neighbor for his food? I guarantee....if you were watching your child starving to death, you would do anything you had to to keep them alive. If you don't have your year's supply, you are putting yourself in danger of losing not only your temporal salvation, but your spiritual salvation as well. So far, all the reasons we don't have our food storage involve eating someone else's food. Please, don't put your family's temporal salvation in other people's hands. No one is storing food for you. Not your neighbors, not the government...not even the church.

6. The boat and the 4 wheelers are taking up all my storage space! (priorities!)

5. 3 letters....Y2K. Ok, that's 2 letters and a number....but they're always making way too much out of everything! This is never going to happen!” (Every prophecy that has ever been given WILL happen.)

4. If anything DOES happen, the government will be here within hours! (insert laughter) Did you know the government has been telling us that we need to have food storage? They're actually CALLING it food storage! We now have the government telling us to store food, water, medicines...whatever we will need to be able to stay in our homes for several months.

3. I can't afford scrap booking AND food storage. The average food storage can cost as little as a dollar a day. We live in the richest society in the history of the world, and while there are cases where money may be a problem, most of the time it is a matter of priorities. We have chosen bigger homes, nicer cars, more tv's, computers, vacations ...everything is more important than our food storage. If I asked, "Who has a cell phone?" most of you would say yes. You pay at least $30 a month to have a cell phone....that's about a dollar a day...the cost of one year's supply of food for your child. Is your cell phone really more important than your child's temporal salvation? You have to make food storage a priority.

2. I'm waiting for the cannery to sell Papa John's dehydrated pizza! Food storage has always had a stigma attached to it. If it's not wheat, beans and powdered milk, it's not food storage. With the system I use, food storage can be sweet and sour chicken, tamale pie, chile and cornbread, beef stew, shepherd's pie, minestrone...even chocolate chip cookies! Your imagination (and your pocketbook) are the only limitations you have.

And the #1 reason why I don't have my year's supply of food? A year?? I thought it was 72 hours!!

You KNOW you should have your food storage. You WANT to have it, but it can be so overwhelming! How much do I buy? Where do I store it? How do I cook it? It seems like an impossible task.... but it's not. It doesn't matter if you use my system or just start buying extra food, the important thing is to do something. Good luck in your efforts!

Wendy DeWitt
http://everythingunderthesunblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.theideadoor.com (to watch a video of her presentation)

http://peaceofpreparedness.com/Resou...0have%20FS.pdf

__________________

KSL does a story on emergency preparedness

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=14445277

Here is a news story and a video showing how to use a small solar panel to power a few small appliances, also some emergency food and how to purify water.

Here are the sources for the solar panel and generator.
http://thesolarpoweredproducts.com/archives/a-review-of-the-solar-generator-from-solutions-from-science

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0041E7TX2?ie=UTF8&tag=shatteparadi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0041E7TX2

Phoenix Capital Research writes about food shortages

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/real-crisis-will-soon-hit-us
Another interesting article about the world food supply.

A&Z Produce market report has great information

 Here is a great website to look at every week, A&Z Produce Market report.  You need to click on the newsletter to view it.

 It will tell you what produce is in short supply, and what will be scarce in the future.  Here is an excerpt from this week:

http://www.azproduce.net/newsletter.shtml

GENERAL OUTLOOK:  Damage assessments continue from the massive February 4thfreeze that affected  

our domestic southwest vegetable growing regions plus the production areas in the Mexican states of  

Sonora and Sinaloa.  Fear as well as early devastation reports caused panic buying that forced prices  

sharply higher.   It is true that many growers suffered terrific losses while others came through the ordeal  

in fairly good shape.  What has happened this past week is “salvage harvesting” which has resulted in a  

false sense of supply and lower pricing.  We are still several weeks away from really knowing how much  

damage actually took place.  Retailers have raised prices to reflect multiple news reports and early high  

pricing.  This has severely hurt demand.  Grower prices are lower than last week on most products as they  

try to stimulate lost demand in an effort to move their temporary heavy inventories.  We expect lower  

prices for about two weeks before supply gaps begin to develop and prices inch higher.  Even with all the  

changes that have taken place, there are still some great temporary profit opportunities and values as we  

navigate through this very interesting market adjusting.  

Look what NitroPak posted on their website

http://www.nitro-pak.com/products/Food-storage/survival-Foods?gclid=COzGs62imqcCFeR65QodYmE9dg

****CURRENT INVENTORY UPDATE****
All Mountain House & Nitro-Pak food storage #10 cans are in EXTREMELY HIGH DEMAND due to national & world current economic uncertainty and inflation fears. With this increase in demand, our food order processing times have greatly increased. AsMountain House’s leading distributor, we are receiving HUGE shipments WEEKLY to fill our customer orders, but demand exceeds the available supply. 99% of MH dealers have been been cut off & receive no food, period. Supplies are VERY SCARCE. But like Disneyland, the line is long and still moving. Please be patient. Rest assured that your credit card will not be charged until we are ready to process your order. Food prices are on the rise. Place your order and LOCK-IN today's low prices NOW! All canned food orders and units may take up to 60 business days to ship. Thank you for your business!
-Harry R. Weyandt, President

See what some guy posted about his food storage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D79-7Xpe32c&NR=1&feature=fvwp

Here's a YouTube video on food storage made by a Prepper (a guy who is into preparedness).  He is not LDS, as evidenced by all the coffee and tea in his storage.

It was interesting to watch his presentation.  I disagreed with some things.

1- I think a lot of his food is going to get bugs in it, since he has it stored in bags and boxes.  I recommend dry-pack canning or putting flour and beans, etc. into buckets.

2- I think his food will be hard to rotate, with unlike foods being placed in front of each other.  I recommend putting one item (corn, for example) all the way front to back in a shelf so you will know to take the oldest from the front and put the new in at the back.  (This is annoying to do in a shelf like that, but very necessary so you don't leave the old stuff in the back to rot.)

He says he thinks this one closet has about 2-3 months worth of food in it.  That might be true.  But he has about 1 year of salt in there.

I agreed with his belief in buying the things his family eats.  Thats what all of us should be doing.

Plus, I really want to point out that his shelves are built in all the way to the ceiling.  Thats what we did in all our closets, and it give about 3 extra shelves in the tops of our coat closet, linen closet, kitchen pantry, broom closet, and bedroom closets.  That is A LOT of extra storage, where it would otherwise be wasted.

Patriot Nurse: A Medical Kit for $50

Here is another great YouTube video by Patriot Nurse.  These are what she considers the most important things to include in your home medical kit, on a budget of $50.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ThePatriotNurse#p/u/26/NLwI9PSAdy0

Gardening- Spencer W. Kimball, more from 1976

..."We encourage you to grow all the food that you feasibly can on your own property. Berry bushes, grapevines, fruit trees—plant them if your climate is right for their growth. 

Grow vegetables and eat them from your own yards. Even those residing in apartments or condominiums can generally grow a little food in pots and planters. Study the best methods of providing your own foods. Make your garden neat and attractive as well as productive. 

If there are children in your home, involve them in the process with assigned responsibilities...Develop your skills in your home preservation and storage. 

We reaffirm the previous counsel the Church has always given, to acquire and maintain a year’s supply—a year’s supply of the basic commodities for us. We encourage families to have on hand this year’s supply; and we say it over and over and over and repeat over and over the scripture of the Lord where He says, ‘Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?’ How empty it is as they put their spirituality, so-called, into action and call him by his important names, but fail to do the things which he says. Spencer W. Kimball (April Conference, 1976)